lunedì, 4 di febbraio
¡Ciao!
🇮🇹 cultura: “Let’s play a game, it’s called ‘how Italian are you?'”
My dear readers,
all _#insert very large number here#_ of you, why don’t we play a game together?
Hold up your hand in front of you. You don’t need to cover your face with, just hold it out there. Then on the count of tre, actually count to 3 using your fingers.
Pronto?…set?…andare?…
uno…due…tre!
uno 👆
due ✌️
tre 🤟
Now, look down at your hand, which three fingers are you holding up?
Do you have your index, middle, and ring finger raised?
Or, did you use your thumb, index, and middle finger?
Well, if you are a native Italian, or European, or perhaps you possess any type of European heritage, or are even a budding Europhile (such as myself), you may have proceeded using the second example.
It is after all, what blew their cover in the sparatutto scene in Inglourious Basterds….So, if you are going to pose as a highly-ranked officer in the German army, you might want to make sure you can count to three. Well, really that you know how to properly count to three…
Okay, back to Italian. And enough with the math, numbers, and counting…
👄 lingua:
Today I felt slightly slighted by Spanish. Spanish has been my dear friend for so long and has really only helped me out. Hah, it is definitely continuing to do so, but today I noticed I was on the struggle bus with a few words that are not cognates in Italian, but really false friends, or, just, well, hard to remember (as of now):
• più > más > more
• ma > pero > but
• hai > (tu) form of avere in the present (tener > to have)
• c’è? > hay > there is / there are (< Pronunciation as in Che Guevara)
Additionally, when Simone was asking un altro studente “hai una console?“, my brain was slightly stuck in this Spantalian limbo and I was registering the Spanish phrase “¿hay una consola?”, which would be “is there a console?”. And of course, I was trying to rationalize why this could be with thoughts like… maybe there was a change in context that I didn’t register, and why is he asking him if there is one when he’s looking right at him, and we can all see there is a console in the room…Inside my brain was screaming: “I DON’T UNDERSTAND!”…this whole thought process actually happened in about .5 seconds, until I realized il nostro professore was asking my classmate, “hai una console?” (¿tienes una console? > do you have a console?).
To begin class, as a warm up, in our small groups we took turns asking and and answering the following phrases:
• Quale giorno ti piace? Mi piace… > ¿Cuál día te gusta? Me gusta…
• Quale giorno non ti piace? Non mi piace… > ¿Cuál día no te gusta? No me gusta…
• E quali mesi? > y ¿cuál mes?
• Hai giocato nel fine settimana? A cosa? > ¿Jugaste algo este fin de semana? ¿Qué?
• Si, ho giocato...> Sí, jugué…
• No, non ho giocato. > No, no jugué.
That which I did do though?
Ho giocato correre e ho esercitato…Although I have no idea if that was the correct grammatical structure, that is what I said in class, and of course Simone responded with some pumping of his arms, and what appeared to be “jogging” (?) in place…so, even if the grammar was not correct my message had come across, based on my interlocutor’s reaction, and that is all we can really hope for in learning a second language, no?
👁 osservare: conducting an Italian class is a lot like working out, what with all the gesturing and running in place.
👩🏫 *Note to future teaching self aka “Almost-Dr. Jones”: If you are not a tad winded and a little bit glistening when finishing up teaching your Spanish class, you may need to up your movement and gesture game. #totalphysicalresponse
Today’s post is a bit shorter than I would like because I am off to finish up our first worksheet on gaming…vocabulary, phrases, etc.
il gioco/i giochi = the game / the games
I giochi su console/i giochi su PC = Games on console/games on PC
I giochi di azione; di avventura; di piattaforma; di guida (driving)
Il livello = The level
I have only finished the first section of vocabulary, thus I am off to…
Completa i nomi con gli articoli indefiniti (un, uno, una, un’) corretti:
___ videogioco; ___ avventura; ___ storia; ___ personaggio; ___ parte.
¡Ciao!
Jonesy's Journey 